by Janie Crouch
How was she ever going to make it through the next few weeks with Sawyer Branson around her all the time?
Chapter Four
Arriving back at Megan’s office at Cyberdyne first thing the next morning, Sawyer was determined not to tease her about the incident the night before. But he had to admit it was tempting. So tempting.
And icy Dr. Fuller was back in full force this morning. Sawyer could tell as soon as he walked in the door.
“Agent Branson,” Megan said with a brief nod. “Good morning.”
So they were back to Agent Branson. “And to you, Dr. Fuller,” Sawyer responded in the same formal tone. Megan’s eyes narrowed at that, as if she couldn’t decide if he was mocking her or not. That was okay; Sawyer couldn’t decide if he was mocking her, either.
“Is it all right if I put my things in here or would you prefer me somewhere else?” Sawyer asked her. He didn’t have much—but he needed somewhere to set up his laptop and files. He didn’t want to be totally useless while he was here; there were at least some things he could accomplish on the computer while babysitting.
Sawyer just hoped Megan’s team would be able to construct the countermeasure quickly so he could get back to Omega as soon as possible.
“Here is fine. I’ll just clear off the table for you.” She moved a few files from the table, then nodded curtly again. “There you go, Agent Branson.”
“Megan, I thought that since you asked me out last night you could at least call me Sawyer.” So much for his resolution not to tease her.
He could almost physically see the heat suffusing her face. “About that, um—” Megan wasn’t looking in Sawyer’s eyes, but he could tell she was at least forcing herself to hold still and not fidget. “I apologize. My words didn’t come out correctly last night and then I didn’t handle the situation well.”
Now Sawyer felt bad. He had thought it was kind of cute the way she had gotten so discombobulated, but she obviously was berating herself for the behavior. “Megan, I was just kidding. Don’t worry about it—”
“I behaved childishly.”
“You didn’t behave childishly. I deliberately misconstrued what you said and I shouldn’t have. I knew the entire time you weren’t asking me out. I should be the one apologizing, not you.”
Megan finally looked up at him. “Fine. I accept your almost-apology, Agent Branson.”
“Thank you, Dr. Fuller. But I do wish you’d call me Sawyer.”
Sawyer wasn’t sure if Megan was about to agree or argue the point when one of the lab technicians came flying into her office.
“Dr. Fuller, we have a huge problem in the vault. We need you to come right away.”
A flash of relief crossed Megan’s face before it was drowned out by concern. She turned and hurried out of her office without another word. Sawyer followed right behind her.
Obviously the lab tech’s definition of huge problem and Sawyer’s differed greatly, Sawyer realized. There was no smoke here in the vault, no bullets, no blood.
The Cyberdyne R & D vault wasn’t a vault like that of a bank. Instead it was just a secure area, with a further locked door and a higher security clearance needed to enter. No stranger could just wander around any part of Cyberdyne from off the street; everyone was escorted by someone. Beyond that, only certain people were cleared to enter the R & D department. From what Sawyer could tell, it looked as if everyone had their own key-card that tracked who came and left out of the general R & D department.
“The vault holds our more highly classified or secretive items,” Megan explained as they entered the secure room. “But really, it’s more of a safe place to store items than anything else.”
“Who has access?”
“Me and select members of the R & D team. And security guards, I guess.”
That was good. Limited access definitely made any area more secure. Sawyer made a mental note to get to know the head of Cyberdyne security.
“We don’t really use the vault to keep out thieves or anything like that,” Megan continued. “It’s more to keep important items safe from a much more treacherous enemy—human error. When you’ve got multiple people walking around day in and day out you’re bound to have spills, misplacements or other accidents. The vault is primarily to save important items from those sorts of problems.”
Jonathan Bushman, Megan’s assistant, was sitting with rigid posture in front of a computer station in the vault.
“What’s going on, Jon?” Megan walked over to stand right beside him.
“It’s the hard drive that housed the Ghost Shell countermeasure. It’s critically damaged.”
Megan pulled her glasses from the top of her head to get a better look at the drive. “What? It was fine the last time I accessed it.”
Sawyer walked over closer to the two of them. “When was that?”
“I don’t know, maybe eight weeks ago? We can check the logs to find out exactly.” She said all this without looking at Sawyer. “Can you recover anything, Jon?”
“Nothing useful.” Jon spoke with a heavy sigh.
Megan picked up the drive and held it in her hands like a wounded bird. Sawyer noticed some scratches on the outside of it.
“See those scratches? Do you think it was external damage that caused the problem? Or is it more internal issues?” Sawyer asked.
Jonathan just rolled his eyes and went back to scanning the screen looking for any recoverable data. Megan turned to Sawyer. “Something happening to it externally could certainly cause damage, if someone, say, stepped on the drive or put something heavy on top of it.”
Sawyer nodded. “Could something internally have been done to it deliberately to make the data unrecoverable?”
Both Jonathan and Megan turned to look at Sawyer sharply. “Like some sort of sabotage?” Jonathan asked.
Sawyer shrugged. “It happens.”
Jonathan was obviously about to take offense. Megan leaned back against the computer station so she was face-to-face with Sawyer. She put her hand on Jonathan’s shoulder.
“I’m pretty sure we don’t have anyone working here who would do anything like that. Especially not anyone who has access to the vault.”
Jonathan nodded vigorously.
“But there’s no way of telling when the damage was done?” Sawyer asked.
Megan shook her head. “No. It could’ve sat here damaged for weeks.”
“Or it could’ve been damaged last night or this morning after you announced the team would begin working on the countermeasure.”
Megan sighed. “Yes, Agent Branson. It is possible it happened within the last twenty-four hours. But I doubt it.”
Sawyer decided not to push it since they had no way of knowing when the damage had occurred. “Do things get damaged in here often?”
“Not often, but it has happened. It happens more often out there.” Megan gestured vaguely with a hand toward the general R & D area. Then she turned and refocused on the screen in front of Jonathan. Within moments they were in a deep discussion about what, if anything, could be salvaged. Neither looked very optimistic.
Sawyer stepped back and looked around the vault. There were cabinets and shelves of varying size. Everything seemed highly organized and labeled—via Megan’s decree he was sure. Nothing lay around haphazardly or seemed to be damaged as far as Sawyer could tell. Like Megan had told him, the vault was equipped to protect its items from human accidents and mistakes. It seemed to do that very well.
Except for in this one case. Sawyer couldn’t help but be suspicious of that.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Evan Karcz. Good, maybe now Sawyer could get an update on what was happening back at Omega.
Sawyer walked out of the vault without saying anything to Megan and Jonathan. They were obviously deeply focused on the countermeasure salvage. Sawyer doubted they would miss him at all.
“Evan. How’s it going in the real world?”
Evan chuckled a little at Sawyer’s greeting. “
I take it that means you’re still less than thrilled with your Cyberdyne assignment?”
“Well, let’s just say it hasn’t been what I expected.”
“Oh yeah? More interesting or less?”
Sawyer glanced over his shoulder at Megan before walking farther down the hall toward her office. “More interesting. Definitely more.”
That got Evan’s attention. “Is something happening there, Sawyer? Good news, I hope.”
“Dr. Fuller thought it was going to take up to a few weeks to finish the Ghost Shell countermeasure, but we encountered a setback first thing this morning.” Sawyer told Evan about the problem in the vault.
“Well, that’s definitely not good. I hope they can recover something from the drive, because things are going to hell in a handbasket around here concerning DS-13 and Fred McNeil.”
“Movement?” Sawyer proceeded all the way into Megan’s office and closed the door.
“Word is, DS-13 is going to have some sort of infiltrative software system coming available in the next couple of weeks.”
“That sounds exactly like Ghost Shell.”
“I thought so, too.”
“Dr. Fuller said there were a number of computer people who would be able to finish the work on their version of Ghost Shell. That it was only a matter of time.”
“He was right, it looks like.”
Sawyer decided to let the erroneous pronoun choice go for the time being. “So what’s the plan?”
“I’m still going under. But as Bob Sinclair.”
That stopped Sawyer in his tracks. “What?”
“I know, Sawyer, believe me, I know. But one of my contacts who has direct ties with DS-13 reached out to me as Bob Sinclair about all this Ghost Shell mess.”
“I thought you retired Bob Sinclair a year ago. After...” Sawyer couldn’t even bring himself to say it.
Bob Sinclair was an undercover persona Evan had carefully developed as a high-end weapons buyer for terrorist groups. Juliet, Sawyer’s sister, had gone undercover with him as Lisa Sinclair, Bob’s wife. Until it had ended in tragedy.
“Sawyer, I know what you’re thinking. And believe me, Juliet won’t be involved this time.”
“She better the hell not be, Evan. She’s not ready.”
“Nobody wants to protect Juliet more than me.”
“Fine, just leave her out of it. And make sure Burgamy isn’t putting any pressure on her to go back under, either.” Sawyer didn’t like being away from Omega where he could make sure for himself that his sister wasn’t being pressured to go back undercover. But he trusted Evan.
“I just wanted you to know what was going on. Word is to expect a big sale coming up in the next couple of weeks. If that’s Ghost Shell, we need to be ready with the countermeasure.”
“Roger that. Dr. Fuller was pretty pissed off about what happened with Fred McNeil. Took a bit of convincing to get the team to trust that I wasn’t going to do something similar and get working on the countermeasure.”
Evan chuckled. “Dr. Fuller giving you hell? Even after only one day?”
“Yeah, she’s something.”
“She? I thought it was Dr. Zane Fuller?”
“Yeah, Dr. Zane Megan Fuller. Not sure if Burgamy left out the Megan part on accident or on purpose.” Sawyer rolled his eyes.
“Well, I certainly imagined that wrong. I guess two degrees from MIT made me think middle-aged guy.”
“You’re not the only one. But try female in her late twenties.”
Sawyer had to pull his phone back from his ear, Evan was laughing so hard. “Of course she is.”
“Shut up, Evan.”
“Look, I’ll let you go play with your scientist, but tell her to hurry up with the countermeasure.” Somberness crept back into Evan’s tone. “It’s going to be easy for this situation to get shot straight to hell very quickly.”
“I know, man, you be careful. Your Bob Sinclair cover has some holes, especially without Juliet.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it worked out. Looks like I might be coming down toward your current location. My contact is not far out of Asheville.”
DS-13 with movement just outside Asheville? Another interesting coincidence Sawyer wasn’t going to take at face value.
Sawyer saw Megan walking toward the office from the vault. “All right, man. Keep me posted if anything further develops. As soon as Cyberdyne has the countermeasure completed, you’ll be my first call.”
Megan tapped lightly on the door before walking in just as Sawyer was ending the call.
“How’d it go?” Sawyer asked her.
Megan threw the file she was carrying down on her desk. “I hope that whoever you were talking to had some good news for you. Because after a complete scan of the damaged hard drive, we discovered that almost nothing is recoverable. We’re basically starting from scratch.”
Chapter Five
Four days later, Megan was considering killing herself and everyone around her. Absolutely nothing was going right with the Ghost Shell countermeasure. Everything she and the team did seemed to be one-step-forward and two-steps-back. First having to start from scratch after the drive was damaged, then errors both human and mechanical plagued them.
She was one mistake away from becoming a homicidal maniac.
Megan was used to working under pressure. Pressure was a challenge she generally enjoyed—it forced her brain to exert in ways not normally required of it. Thinking faster often produced new and exciting solutions that working a problem slowly often missed.
But right now thinking faster was just producing a bunch of junk.
Admittedly, the pressure Megan usually fell under wasn’t the save-the-world variety. It tended to be more of the save money or time variety. Knowing that if they didn’t get the countermeasure completed before Ghost Shell was sold on the black market by this DS-13 group then thousands of lives could be lost tended to put Megan a little on edge.
But really it was Sawyer Branson’s constant presence here that was damaging Megan’s calm. Not that he was critical or did anything to deliberately make her uncomfortable, he was just always there. Observing, reporting, ready to help if there was anything he could do.
It was driving her absolutely nuts.
After yet another error in the computer coding had forced Megan’s team to backtrack again this morning, Megan had decided to leave them to that part and take an early working lunch.
And yeah, Megan could admit she was hiding out a little from Sawyer here in the small break room of the R & D department.
She had brought with her the new drive she and the team had partially rebuilt over the past couple of days. Her lunch tote was stuffed with printouts concerning the source code and combinatorial algorithms needed for the project, as well as a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Megan hoped she could get some work done in here. Almost everybody used the larger companywide cafeteria to eat rather than this small break room. Blessed quiet reigned here.
Halfway through her sandwich and the printouts Megan heard the door open. She didn’t look up from her work, hoping whoever entered either wasn’t looking for her or would see she was busy and not disturb her. A few moments of silence reassured her.
“You’re cute when you concentrate really hard like that.”
Sawyer. Almost instantly the words Megan had been concentrating on became gibberish on the printout in front of her. She just couldn’t think when he was around.
“I’m working.” Megan knew she was being borderline rude, again, but couldn’t help it. Acting cold around him was the only way not to become a babbling idiot like she had been on the first day.
“I see that. Mind if I hang out in here for a while? I’ll be quiet, I promise.”
Yes, Megan minded. His very presence in the room bothered her. Everything about him bothered her. “Fine.”
True to his word Sawyer didn’t say anything else, not even to point out how rude Megan was being, but it didn’t seem to matter. Try as sh
e might, Megan couldn’t get any work done with Sawyer around. When she found herself reading the same page for the third time, she decided she’d had enough. She was going home.
Megan stood up and began cramming stuff into bags. She realized she had put the remaining part of her sandwich in her briefcase and the Ghost Shell drive in her lunch bag, but she didn’t care.
Sawyer watched calmly from his table near the door. “Finished with lunch?”
“I can’t work in here anymore. There’s too much noise.”
Sawyer looked around as if to discover what noise she referred to. Megan couldn’t blame him. Except for the sound of Megan frantically stuffing papers into whatever bag happened to be closest, it was completely silent in the break room.
“I’m going home to work for the rest of the afternoon.” Megan couldn’t afford to lose another whole day, no matter what the reason. Especially because of her own ridiculousness. There was too much at stake.
Megan took her bags and marched out of the break room, without looking at or speaking to Sawyer, and headed toward her office. Jonathan and the rest of the team were sitting around one of the conference tables in the middle of the main R & D room looking much more relieved than when she had left them this morning. Jonathan stood when he saw Megan, a report in hand.
“Megan, it looks like we figured out the coding problem. Well, it was mostly Trish.” Jonathan gestured to the woman next to him. “Now we just have to finish it.”
“Great, you guys. I’m going to be working off-site this afternoon, so I need you all to get this done so we can start fresh tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have some of our other Ghost Shell problems worked out by then.”
Megan encouraged everyone a bit more, then headed back to her office. Jonathan followed her, along with Trish, one of the newer Cyberdyne team members, who always seemed to be trying to get more face time with Megan.
“Where are you going to be this afternoon?” Jonathan asked Megan.
“Just off-site somewhere, probably at home. I need to get away from Cyberdyne for a little while so I can think clearly. Everything here is holding me back.”
